Calvin L. Hall. African American Journalists: Autobiography as Memoir and Manifesto. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2009. 117p. alk. paper, $35 paper (ISBN 9780810869301). LC2009-006052

African American autobiography has a long, distinguished history dating back to the eighteenth century, when religious conversion and spiritual growth were the central themes written or dictated by men and women who were former slaves, such as the Gospel and Labours of George White (1810) and Memoir of Old Elizabeth (1863). Free blacks who wrote about their spiritual enlightenment include the first autobiography written by an African American woman in 1836, entitled The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel. Historically, African American autobiography, written in narrative style, often functioned as a form of resistance to the institution of slavery by drawing attention to its horrors from those who had survived the experience. Slave narratives often provided documentation for the antislavery movement while also chroni-cling the will to survive subjugation and exploitation, as revealed in two of the most famous narratives published in the nineteenth century: by Frederick Douglass in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and Harriet Jacobs in her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). These works, along with many other slave narratives written throughout the nineteenth century, helped rally support for the antislavery cause by demonstrating the humanity of the enslaved in their quest for freedom. The early nineteenth century marked the beginning of the African American presence in print journalism with the publication of the first black newspaper in the United States, Freedom's Journal (1827), founded by John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish. Douglass continued using his immense writing skills by crafting two additional autobiographies, one of which, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), recounts his activities publishing and editing The North Star (1847) newspaper in Rochester, New York. Jacobs also continued to write for several antislavery publications while remaining actively engaged in the antislavery movement. During the latter half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of black-owned newspapers flourished in major cities north and south. Essentially established to provide its readership with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, such as presidential speeches and abstracts of congressional proceedings, these newspapers also reported news pertinent to the African American community not generally covered in the mainstream press. In addition to covering secular and religious events, the papers published biographical sketches, vital statistics, poetry, essays, and editorials. Of the many critical roles …